Movie News

REVIEW: Oblivion

It's the year 2077; the world has been abandoned by all humanity after a war with an alien species makes Earth uninhabitable. The only humans left are a couple of technical caretakers who work to update and repair machines that guard huge aqua power-mining platforms.

The caretakers comprise of Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), a field tech that repairs downed robotic guard units. And his backup, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), who surveys his missions and remotely watches his back. They work as a unit to complete the objectives they’ve been assigned by an overhead floating command.

With only two weeks left until Jack and Victoria are to rejoin the human race off-planet, an inbound spacecraft crashes into the planet and grabs Jack's attention. Curiosity turns to puzzlement as he rescues a woman (Olga Kurylenko) who is quite literally "of his dreams." As his reality crumbles and the truth comes to light, the ramifications of the world at large and the lie he has been living almost bring him to his knees.

Friends and enemies quickly change sides as Jack finds something and someone to live for. His only choice left, to forget the past and hopefully save the future…

First and foremost, Oblivion is quite beautiful; cinematic in every sense with great detail to the world at large. And while the story is inventive, I believe it loses something integral in the explanation arena. Reveals should be exciting and fun which was not delivered in a decisive way in this picture.

The other unfortunate victim in this movie is the plot which must be made of half Swiss cheese with all of the holes. Many alternatives were in constant play, only to have the final truth be less emotional than the sound arrangement would have you infer. In the end, I believe direction takes a hit on this one. The gravity of the story fell with less of a bang and more like a ping. I wanted to like this movie, but as a true Sci-fi fan, it left me floating in space.